NCCC 2008 – Take Every Opportunity

Just so you know, this article is a collaborative effort between myself and Jillian. Jillian gives us a wrap-up of the week-end and I will give some reflections further below:

NCCC Wrap-up (by Jillian)

Well, the North Coast Christian Convention (NCCC) has flown past for another year, but it was an excellent weekend at Evans Head.

NCCC ’08 saw over 400 people gather together to be taught from God’s word by David Jones and Steve Young. This year also saw the introduction of the men’s and women’s seminars run by Steve Young (men) and Di Warren (women). Both received many positive comments in the feedback. Our Saturday night entertainment was provided by Steve Morrison and his band who played some jazz tunes for us.

Many thanks go out to all involved in both the preparation and smooth running of the convention including the committee, speakers, music team, morning and afternoon tea set up teams and many more.

Special thanks go to the teams from Brisbane Uni Church and Mitchelton Presbyterian Church who cared for our creche kids and K-6 kids over the entire weekend. It was great to see so many families at the convention, and doubly great knowing that the kids and youth are being taught the gospel while being cared for so parents can listen in to the talks, uninterrupted.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure you mark the last weekend in May 2009 as booked up with NCCC! Wouldn’t it be a shame to miss such a great opportunity!

Take Every Opportunity (by Wade)

As is the case every year at NCCC, we were privileged to hear God speak to us, as his word was taught faithfully, clearly and boldly.

Steve Young brought us talks from 1 Corinthians and it was great to be reminded of the living hope that we have in Christ; that death is dead and that we will be raised like him.

David Jones brought us talks on the theme for the week-end, ‘Never Say NO to Jesus’. We looked at three passages where Peter told Jesus he was wrong. I was particularly challenged by the last talk, ‘Saying No to the Great Commission’, based on Acts 11 &15. Rather than trying to explain it all to you, I have included a couple clips that are well worth listening to.

We live in a world that sees the Bible as irrelevant or even boring. Many Christian churches bypass the Bible to look for fresh revelations and hearing God’s voice outside of Scripture. Both these influences can rub-off on us and as a result, we can severely undervalue the worth of good Bible teaching. We need to remember afresh that when we open the Bible and we listen to it, we are listening to God himself. It might look so unspectacular in the world’s eyes, but God’s word alone has the power to save and to bring real change. May we be people who take every opportunity to listen to God’s word.

I was particularly challenged by the next part of David’s talk:

At another point in this talk, David mentioned that our churches are so middle-class. He made the comment that it’s very rare to see so many of the Australian “tribes” (sub-cultures) in our churches.

I reckon that our church makes a big effort to welcome people along, no matter what their background.  However, we don’t ever want to become complacent about these things. We need to make sure our church is a place where we can celebrate our diversity. It needs to be a community that demonstrates God’s grace to the world around us. It needs to be a community that shows God accepts people from all backgrounds, cultures and sub-cultures. Our church should celebrate the freedom that we have in Christ and allows people to be different; so long as we are urging them to be living under the Lordship of Christ and conforming to his actions and attitudes.

This is the point of our unity; the gospel of Christ. Let’s make an effort to remove any obstacle in the way of “not-yet Christians” that may prevent them coming to know our Lord and Saviour. I know that I need to repent of the ways I’ve discriminated with the gospel. Let’s not be people that hold the message of hope back from anyone. May God’s word soak deep into our minds and lives so that we would be a community marked by grace; a community that shows that the gospel of Jesus, really is for everyone.